{"id":874114,"date":"2026-04-25T04:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T04:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/874114\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T04:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T04:55:07","slug":"patriots-trade-up-select-ol-caleb-lomu-with-no-28-pick-in-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/874114\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots Trade Up, Select OL Caleb Lomu With No. 28 Pick In 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/new-england-patriots\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New England Patriots<\/a> selected offensive lineman Caleb Lomu with the No. 28 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>Lomu, who spent his collegiate career at Utah, was the ninth offensive lineman selected in the first round, clocking in behind the Cleveland Browns&#8217; Spencer Fanu (No. 9), New York Giants&#8217; Francis Mauigoa (No. 10), Miami Dolphins&#8217; Kadyn Proctor (No. 12), Baltimore Ravens&#8217; Olaivavega Ioane (No. 14), Detroit Lions&#8217; Blake Miller (No. 17), Carolina Panthers&#8217; Monroe Freeling (No. 19), Pittsburgh Steelers&#8217; Max Iheanachor (No. 21), and Houston Texans&#8217; Keylan Rutledge (No. 26).<\/p>\n<p>Lomu, a two-year starter, is considered an above-average athlete that uses his quickness to stay in front of speed rushers and reach interior defensive lineman in the running game. The Athletic&#8217;s Dane Brugler <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/interactive\/the-beast-2026\/player\/caleb-lomu-utah-offensive-tackle\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wrote<\/a> that he &#8220;struggled to play with consistent aggression or leg drive as a run blocker&#8221; during his two seasons as a starter, though he &#8220;has consistent snap timing, with the mirror quickness to stay in front of wide speed and the body control to catch his balance and recover.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Patriots consider him the right tackle of the future, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Patriots\/status\/2047510389638795709?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">once again backing<\/a>\u00a02025 first-round pick Will Campbell.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Will&#8217;s our left tackle,&#8221; Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf said, per team-provided video.<\/p>\n<p>New England traded up in order to get their guy, sending No. 31 and No. 125 to the Buffalo Bills. Wolf&#8217;s staff will have nine picks to work with across the remainder of the weekend: No. 63,\u00a0No. 95,\u00a0No. 131,\u00a0No. 171,\u00a0No. 191,\u00a0No. 198,\u00a0No. 202,\u00a0No. 212, and No. 247.<\/p>\n<p>More NFL:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/new-england-patriots\/news\/patriots-mike-vrabel-addresses-stepping-away-team-during-nfl-draft\/4f573a665700414c440f023c\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Patriots&#8217; Mike Vrabel Addresses Stepping Away From Team During NFL Draft<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots selected offensive lineman Caleb Lomu with the No. 28 overall pick in the 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-874114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-newengland","12":"tag-newenglandpatriots","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116463568288116002","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}